kitchen, cooking, cleaning tips: Chocolate Cake

For my daughter's 7th birthday she really wanted a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and polka dots. We found a chocolate cake recipe on Curious Foodie that sounded perfect. My daughter and I had a fun time baking this cake together - she was so proud when she finally cracked the eggs without getting any shells into the batter. I was disappointed when I took the pans out of the oven to find the cake hadn't risen much. I asked my daughter if she wanted to make a new cake or go buy a cake at the store and she said no. She loved the cake that she baked and wanted it for her birthday. She had a great time frosting, designing and decorating the cake. It was wonderful to see my daughter fill with pride when her friends told her how pretty and tasty her cake was. I am glad it turned out okay but I wish I knew why the cake didn't rise, does anyone have any suggestions?

Chocolate Cake:

Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking

Original recipe from Curious Foodie

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of white sugar
2 small eggs
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup of milk
1 1/4 cup of flour
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
Frosting of your choice (we used butter cream)
Sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two round cake pans with a bit of butter than sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl. Cream the sugar and butter together in your mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat very slowly, then the vanilla extract. Combine the flour mixture alternatively with milk into the butter mixture, until thoroughly incorporated. Pour the batter into the two prepared cake pans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the cake pan for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to finish cooling.